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As seen in PT

When tooling issues are shutting down presses daily and you can’t muster the mold maintenance and operating records to figure out why, then like the song says, “Who ya gonna call?” The answer to that question proved crucial to Cosmetic Specialties International (CSI), LLC in Oxnard, Calif.

Our last column covered shop size and bench requirements for a 50 x 50 ft mold-repair shop that will have a MPP (Mold Pull Pace) of approximately 25 to 30 multi-cavity molds a week and employ four repair technicians in a six-bench layout.

At my first production meeting with my new employer, I was told, “We want you to establish a preventive maintenance program that is based on maximum cycle counts for all our molds.” Then, before I could launch into an explanation of how best to determine maximum cycle counts, I was hit with the follow-up: “So, how many cycles do you think our molds can safely run before we need to clean them?”Leaving my crystal ball at home and unable to get my x-ray vision working, there was no way to answer this question with any real accuracy.

Those in charge of keeping molds reliable and production-ready normally start their day in the same manner—wondering what broke down since they last walked out the door—and hoping they have the resources to get it going again.

When I was in the Navy, many different trades such as hydraulics, electrical, airframes, armament, and jet-engine mechanics worked side by side to get planes into the air, through their scheduled missions, returned to base, and turned around to do it all over again.

If custom molders were judged on curb appeal alone, this one would always be flush with work. Appointed in colonial brick encasing large smoked-glass windows and surrounded by balmy landscape and a lawn that looked good enough to eat, this stately plastics plant just screamed money. Surely they must be doing something right. But once past the glitz, the show was over.